Houston 137, Washington 114
Q. Why were they able to build such a big lead in the third quarter?
BRIAN KEEFE: We made a couple coverage mistakes. Really it was the last six minutes of the third. That game was back-and-forth pretty much the whole game until that point. Obviously Green made a couple blown coverages on some of our pick-and-roll stuff and he got hot, and then it was hard to turn him off after that.
Q. And what did they do to generate so many free throw attempts?
BRIAN KEEFE: They put their head down and attacked the rim. Some of that's on us and we've got to play without fouling but give them credit, they put their head down and were aggressive.
Q. A lot of good stuff tonight, especially your bench. Who stood out or anyone you'd like to highlight?
BRIAN KEEFE: I thought they were all great. This is invaluable experiences for these guys and they have had worked all year to earn this. I thought they were terrific when they came in and obviously Justin, Jared -- Jared I thought really was great tonight. Kind of got us going, controlling the game but it was all of them: Anthony Gill, Patrick Baldwin, Johnny.
Like all these guys, you know, a lot of these guys play the Go-Go, and they have always stepped in ready to play and they all contributed. I think we had eight of the nine guys in double figures. So there were a lot of positives tonight.
Q. It it's a long injury report, unfortunately, but also there's a lot of sprains and strains and everything on there. Are you expecting to have any of the main guys back?
BRIAN KEEFE: No update right now. I'm sure a lot of the stuff will be day-to-day but we'll update you guys as we go.
Q. Eight of the nine players scored double figures but nobody scored more than 16. How do you weigh the positives of balanced scoring with the negatives of no single player really going home?
BRIAN KEEFE: I'll look at that as a positive. You want guys sharing the ball, moving the ball.
The fact that we had eight of the nine to, me that was a positive. That means the ball was moving. We played and could have made a few more open threes but like the fact that we were sharing, guys were touching it, guys were getting off it, that's how we want to play. So to me that was really positive tonight.
Q. What makes Jalen Green so tough?
BRIAN KEEFE: He can hit tough shots. He had some tough shots to start the game and I thought we did a little better job and we were pretty good at the is that right of the third quarter and he hit obviously some tough ones, again, we made some mistakes, stuff we can take a look at tomorrow and film and learn from and definitely grow from. But he's a high-level scorer.
Q. In Washington, or elsewhere, do you think that Jules Bernard has made the case to stick around in the NBA?
BRIAN KEEFE: What I like about Jules is Jules is a worker. He's someone who loves basketball. He's continued to get better.
So I would never put a limit on any player. I wouldn't do that for any of our guys if you talked about any of them. So to me he's a young guy who is growing and he's in our development program. We're working with him every day and then when he's getting opportunities, he's proved well.
Q. What have you thought about the way that Justin has seized the opportunity to far?
BRIAN KEEFE: Justin, obviously he's new to our program, about a month now maybe, maybe a little less or more. But he has a good, mature game. Good physical defender. Makes smart plays on the offensive end and he's a good rebounder. Six offensive rebounds tonight but he's got a good size to him, good physicality and he's another guy who is growing and developing. So I liked what I saw from him tonight.
Q. Corey was obviously so good in the first quarter, didn't miss a shot. What can he do to sustain that and I guess react to when teams adjust to him defensively?
BRIAN KEEFE: That's a team thing. But part of guys guarding Corey is he loves other guys to get shots. This is a team game. Corey draws so much attention, and we've all seen this all year so that frees up our other guys. Having Corey's presence on the court is going to lead to open shots for our bigs, for our other guys. He causes so much emotion with his shooting ability, his ability to drive to the basket. So he's a big reason why our offense is good when he's in the game.
Q. I know you guys are very kind of intensive in the player development aspect. When so many guys are injured, how do you shift their goals? I know regular check-ins and everything like that, does everybody say, okay, you have more time to try to achieve this or we're focusing on this in this section? How does that shift everything?
BRIAN KEEFE: These guys have stuff that they know that they are working on that they were focused on in all areas. Some of that is off the court. I mean, some of it is the weight room, strength, conditioning. We are very holistic in our approach to development. But it's just more opportunity to learn and grow in the games, and against high-level players.
These are great opportunities for our guys we're discovering, and it gives us more and more moments to teach and learn when we come to practice the next day. So these are moments that are invaluable for all those guys.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports